Using The SyncUp Start Wizard To Set Up Your First Profile

@MAX actually does a great job on their website providing you with tutorials on how to use SyncUp, so I’m not going to go into great detail, but I will walk you through what I feel to be the most important part of the setup and that is the backing up option. Aside from that, there are two other types of profiles that you can create and those are Restore and Synchronize.

First start by clicking the Backup Profile link. Then you’ll be prompted to choose which data to back up. Keep in mind that if you plan to use Google Drive you only have 5GB total. I recommend selecting your My Documents folder. However, if yours is like mine, you likely have a bunch of other unneeded program files in there, so go through it and select which sub-folders you don’t want.

The next step will be to set up your storage types. These are LAN or local folders, removable USB storage devices, FTP or SFTP server, or Google Drive. For this example, let’s use Google Drive. I’ve decided to go with it instead because usually the readers who have an FTP server and want to back up to those likely won’t need as much guidance. Also, backing up to a local folder/USB drive is quite straightforward after becoming familiar with the program (which is what this article is to help you do).

Now, before you go any further, you’ll want to make sure you know what folder you want to back up to in Google Drive. If you already have a folder titled “Backup” (or whatever you’ve named it), then great. If not, go ahead and add it now. I’ve found through my own experience that this is best done through the web interface as there won’t be added time in syncing the folder from your computer to your Google Drive account.

You can see in the image that first you must select “Google Drive” in the Location options. Then enter your Google account credentials (be sure to test them). Make sure SyncUp archive, under Storage options, is marked and then choose your archive path (Google Drive folder). Lastly, you’ll need to create a password. I recommend you save this somewhere safe so you don’t forget it.

After setting up the storage portion, you’ll be able to pick from various run options. My advice would be to check “Run on Schedule“. Then decide how often you’d like it to run. I think running it ever day is a good idea. Also, you should have the checkbox checked next to “If files have been changed, run every….” and pick the number of minutes. I like that feature a lot as it’s very important in ensuring the most recent version of a file you’re working on is backed up and synced.

Also, having the option checked to wake the computer to run the profile and also the option to run as soon as possible if the scheduled start is missed. These both ensure that the backup will be run no matter what. Having the profile run at Windows startup and/or User logon is optional. Depending on your computer’s speed, you may not want to slow down its startup timeHow To Make Windows Boot Faster Than Ever BeforeHow To Make Windows Boot Faster Than Ever BeforeOne… two… three… how many minutes does it take your computer to start up? Hopefully not more than three, but it wouldn’t surprise me if you said it surpassed that time. The thing is, our...Read More any more. Also, be sure to type in your computer’s login credentials and check the box next to “Run profile as”.

Have you ever backed up some files, only to have filled parts of it with files you didn’t want, even if you specified which folders to back up? This is because you didn’t exclude certain file types. With the file filter, you can do this. Of course, you can also make sure other file types are included and not left out.

The events and notifications options can be pretty handy. You can execute a program before and/or after running a profile. You can also choose to receive notifications based on if an error occurs or even after every profile is finished.

As the description in the advanced options window states, this is where you can specify a number of options that control the backup process such as split volumes, encryption, compression, changing the archive volume file name, as well as several copy options, file comparison options and others.

In my honest opinion, there aren’t too many options here that the “regular” user would really need to customize.

Now all that’s left is choosing a profile name and choosing where to save it. After you’ve selected these settings, you can check “Run profile now” or leave it unchecked to run later.

That’s it! The setup is pretty simple. Now what if you want to setup a recovery or synchronization profile? Along with providing a tutorial on setting up the backup profile (what we just went over), @MAX has also provided tutorials on those as well:

Again, once the scheduler is set up @MAX SyncUp is completely hands off. So for those of you who say that you don’t have the time to backup, you no longer have that excuse because SyncUp does it for you.

SyncUp is currently compatible with the following Windows Operating Systems:

Aaron is a Vet Assistant graduate, with his primary interests in wildlife and technology. He enjoys exploring the outdoors and photography. When he's not writing or indulging in technological findings throughout the interwebs, he can be found bombing down the mountainside on his bike. Read more about Aaron on his…